Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-05-11
RATES OF ADVERTISING.
CALHOUN.
MY MARGARET ]. PRESTON.

1
|
| Inc following Is the poem written by u
Margaret ]. Preston of Virginia, at the requ
| Oh Inc board OF managers Of the Calhoun Nc
ument Association, and read at the unveili
OF the statue in Charleston, 8. c., Tussd
week.
Stand forth, stern patriot! calm, severe,
As in thine hours supreme elation,
When eager Senators thronged to hear
The voice that thrilled listening nation.
II.
Step from thy civic chair; receive
The homage which thy people render;
The best that grateful hearts can give
To keep thy memory fresh and tender;
Our City by the Sea, while yet
Disaster lays Its grasp upon her,
Remembers her inviolate debt
Ofpride and reverence. love and honor.
",
Her spires may rock, her towers may fall,
Her centuried grandeur sink and perish:
Her hor.eess eerd-wall,
And ruin ..@
v -
Yet. while one spot stands firm and fair,
Safe from the elemental riot,
Wen place our patriot warder there.
Sublime In his majestic quiet.
vi.
Through life his watch knew no surcease;
What. then, If in the fair Elysian,
Through the clear atmosphere of peace.
Heholds US still In vatic visionl
VII.
The eye so keen to note the wrong
The voice so firm for law and order
Shall we not own their guidance strong.
From mountain crest to ocean border?
VIII.
With reverence for the power that led
His mind to each profound conviction,
We bow beneath his hand outspread,
And here receive his benediction.
TX.
*TRUTH, with her mirror at his feet,
Gives back, without wane Of glory,
His whole consistent life complete
AS some clear page of classic story.
K.
Stern JUSTICE VOWS, by sword and shield
Her robes Of regal state upon her
That she, as soon as her scales could yield.
AS he-his Cardinals honor!
XII
And in her sovereign majesty
The CONSTITUTION. with her token
Spread open on her bended knee
Not one of all her fasces broken
XII
Looks up to him, whose giant thrust
Still kept at bay each pressing foeman;
Ready to die, If die he must,
Pro Patria grand as any RomanI
XIII.
See! HISTORY takes her diamond pen
To trace with calmness unimpassIoned,
From first to last, his life for when
Was statesman's life SO purely fashioned
XIV.
So tireless in Its aim to wage
The war of splendid word or action
80 staunch amid the rant and rage
OF envious and ignoble faction;
XIV.
80 like lighthouse on a rock.
When fast the surges swirl, and faster;
still warning those who did but mock,
OF tempest, shipwreck. wrench, disaster!
XVI.
Yet, ere the onset, doomed to diei
Disdaining place. and fame and favor;
My coatatry!' still his latest sigh
II ,oo,tld hape s.aked nly life to save her r'
XVII.
Yea; when the stress OF peril came,
And wars wild ravage sore bestead them,
BE would have led her hosts through fame
OF battle, even as Hampton led them!
XVIII.
lie would have died, like gallant Bee,
As If a martyrs crown had crowned him,
TO guard his States Gear sovereignty,
With her Palmetto flag around him!
XIX.
Fair Cardinal Mid the names
That blazon thy heroic pages;
Whose record all our reverence claims
Whose words go sounding down the ages
Xxx.
Place first, place foremost. pl loudest, best,
The name here cut, whose splendid story,
Blown henceward-North, East, South, an,
West
Remains your heritage Of Glory!
[*The four allegoric figures on the the base @
he monument represent Truth, Justice, tn
and History.l